OAS 10.1.3 isn't detecting /WEB-INF/lib jar files within WAR file

Question

Hello,
I have been developing and testing a simple non-EJB web application on Tomcat 5.5 with no class loading difficulties for the past several months. All of the needed JARs for my app are located under the WEB-INF/lib directory. My next task is to deploy the WAR file containing my webapp on the Oracle 10g (10.1.3) application server.
The problem I am having when trying to do this is that when I deploy the WAR file from Oracle Enterprise Manager, the WAR file will expand correctly but at runtime OAS doesn't appear to be detecting the JAR files in the WEB-INF/lib folder of my WAR file. I have confirmed that the JAR files are indeed being expanded in the directory that OC4J expands the WAR file into:
appserver/j2ee/home/applications/appEARFile/MyWebApp/WEB-INF/lib.
But when I run the application, from the Firefox browser I immediately get the following 500 Internal Server Error:
"Servlet error: Error instantiating servlet 'reports'. Servlet class org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet not found in web-application MyWebApp"
(The IE browser just gives me the 500 error without additional elaboration.)
But my spring.jar where that class is located is in the WEB-INF/lib directory. Does anyone have an idea what the solution is--how can I get OC4J to read the spring.jar (or any jar) in that lib folder? (Or is there a way I can configure logging to better pinpoint the problem if that isn't it?)
Thanks,
Glen

Answer 1

Glen,
You said:
IE browser just gives me the 500 error without
additional elaborationTry unsetting the "Show friendly HTTP error
messages".
From the "Tools" menu of Microsoft Internet Explorer,
choose "Internet Options".
(You should then see another window entitled
"Internet Properties" displayed.)
Select the "Advanced" tab and search for "Show
friendly HTTP error messages".
Excellent--that worked. Thanks! I was afraid that I would have to be debugging on Firefox exclusively.
I also suggest setting the
"search-local-classes-first" attribute, of the
"web-app-class-loader" element, in your
"orion-web.xml" file to 'true' (if it isn't
already).
That did it. My orion-web.xml file was of the old DTD-based version, I believe that was causing the problem.
The following document:
Oracle® Containers for J2EE
Developer’s Guide
10g Release 3 (10.1.3)
Part No. B14433-01
has a chapter (3) entitled Utilizing the OC4J
Class Loading Framework which contains a section
entitled Troubleshooting Class Loading-Related
Problems in OC4J.
Thanks for the link, I went through it thoroughly in trying to fix my problem.
Glen